Bust

Sanctuary - head on right - Albert

Erection date: 1854

Site: Westminster Sanctuary (4 memorials)

SW1, Broad Sanctuary, The Sanctuary, 1-8 Broad Sanctuary

The building is Grade II listed, a terrace of Bath stone buildings incorporating gateway to Dean's Yard. 1853-54 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Some sources say these were built as houses which seems unlikely but they are certainly now used as offices.

Niches in the turrets, at first floor, house two very similar statues. The spandrels of the gateway are decorated with two roundels with portrait heads, one of which is crowned. These all seem to represent particular individuals but we can find no information, so we have to guess.

The statues are crowned and each clutches a model building, with slightly different fenestration. So we think they are the two kings central to the creation of Westminster Abbey: Edward the Confessor who, in 1042-52, (re)built St Peter's Abbey here, and Henry III who, in 1245, began the building of the current Abbey. Comparative beard lengths seem to corroborate our theory.

And the two heads must represent Victoria and Albert: the female wears a crown and the male doesn't, the date of the building, they even look like some of their portraits.

The memorial column in our photo is covered on its own page: Westminster School - old boys.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Sanctuary - head on right - Albert

Subjects commemorated i

Prince Albert

Born Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, Germany, as Albert Francis Augustus Charles Ema...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Sanctuary - head on right - Albert

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Guildhall - Wren bust

Guildhall - Wren bust

EC2, Guildhall Yard, Guildhall

The arcade contains four modern busts, left to right: Pepys Cromwell Shakespeare Wren and a statue of Whittington to the left.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Bermondsey Library - 2 - Shakespeare

Bermondsey Library - 2 - Shakespeare

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The busts are on the keystones of the library first floor window arches, numbered left to right.  Ornamental Passions has posted about th...

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John Donne bust

John Donne bust

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The poetry on the base of the statue is from Donne’s 1613 poem ‘Good Friday—Riding Westward’. That on the shoulder is from 'A Letter to ...

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators
Hyde Park Barracks - Hill

Hyde Park Barracks - Hill

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Inside this building on the upper-ground floor there are 4 busts - 2 in the foyer area at the entrance from the pavement (at the west) an...

1 subject commemorated
01 Croydon - Edmund Halley

01 Croydon - Edmund Halley

CR9, Katharine Street, Croydon Public Library

Built in 1892 by Charles Henman Jr. this heavily decorated complex of buildings makes up Croydon's Town Hall. The building and the rounde...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator